Update: I am now in Toronto airport and have located free wireless - so finally able to post my last Swedish blog! Had a great visit with Stefanie in Frankfurt - will add another blog with those photos ;) and just saw my wonderful dear old roommate from Ridley high school days, Amber, and her cute baby Jordan - thanks for coming to the airport Ambie - KC Club Founding Co-Prez!
And now here is my blog wrapping up my time in Sweden....
Well I am on the plane to Frankfurt – so have officially left Sweden now. I think though I may add another blog post or two with some reflections on my time and thoughts on Sweden – but we shall see how that goes once I am back home and busy with life there! I definitely found out that blogs are a lot of fun to write and it’s nice to be able to tell a story and share thoughts along with pictures! I’m a fan – so I encourage you to start a blog so I can follow you and your adventures! I’ve been lax with the updates in the last couple of weeks b/c I have been knocked out by what Vickie not so affectionately has dubbed the Tri-Nation-Cold – compliments of Ireland, Russia, and Sweden. I am also not so fond of it – as I have now had it for over two weeks! Who knew that a simple head cold could be so brutal – and also uncooperative for travel! Luckily my sinuses are tolerating the pressure changes of flying – but they are by no means happy! Hopefully it doesn’t become a four or five nation cold and it is gone by the time I land in Canada!
So where to begin….. well I guess I could begin with my experience of being sick in Sweden and how it turns out things aren’t so easy here in terms of medicating yourself! But boy did I try every possible way to get healthy! When I travel to a 3rd world country I always go prepared with all sorts of medicines to cover my bases – but when I get there I realize they have everything I need and more – and it costs less than at home. Not the case in Sweden I can now tell you – bring your own drugs (Sudafed, Theraflu, neo-citran, et al.)!!! When I was sick with my last cold (The Spanish one) I had visited the pharmacy to get some cold medicine – b/c you have to buy it from a drug store. Anyhow, I got something called Sinova Forte – sounds like it is something strong for your sinuses right? Yeah not so much – after taking that to no avail during the tri-nation cold I ran the ever faithful google translator only to discover that it is all herbs… such things as ?cowslip? All I know is that it was giving me the slip in terms of making me feel at all human! So luckily Vickie had reserves from her extended bout with the sickness and left me with some Sudafed she acquired problem free in Estonia. I asked about getting ‘cold medicine’ and in the end the consensus was that you need to see a dr for that. Given that I knew that my ear drums and sinuses in their current state would not survive 4 flights to get back home I decided it was time to get serious. So began my foray into “Vard” (health) in Sweden. I called the local VardCentral – the catch here is that you don’t get to speak to a human being – the message just tells you that they will call you back – in my case it was going to be 4 hours before they called back. Then in the end they said – yes you should come in but we have no more spots today, so you must call back and try again tomorrow! Or go to the IKSU drop-in center instead during their hours. Oh and they said it would cost 1800 Swedish Kronor (~300 CAD). Here’s hoping my Canadian Emergency Travel insurance covers that – I figure they should given that if I couldn’t fly they’d be paying a lot more for hotels and what not for the delay of my trip home… In the end a nurse saw me and that only cost 800 SEK – but was not what I call helpful. She could only prescribe me nasal spray – had to go see a dr dr for the decongestant – which she confirmed was nothing stronger than the Sudafed I was rationing from Vickie. And I liked that she asked if I had a fever – uhm – aren’t you the one with the thermometer – oh right – so she checked and at least no fever. The saga continued when I took my prescription to the pharmacy and the pharmacist looked trouble and after consulting with the other pharmacist told me - this is slow to act – you should take for 14 days rather than just 10 (I had only 4 before flying!) and you should take higher dose with more sprays than was recommended in the rx. When I googled my spray (?nasonex) I was dismayed to see that it is more for people with chronic sinusitis than for someone with a bad cold… what’s a girl to do?! Happily Stefanie bought me some stronger drugs in Germany so I could be less conservative with my Sudafed consumption in the interim and am now feeling at least somewhat human! But I tell you when this cold is finished I am not going to want to drink anymore hot tea with lemon and honey for a long time!!!
Sidebar – the pilot just announced +10 C in Frankfurt – woo woo!!! I am spending the night with my dear friend Stefanie (she was doing a post-doc in Edmonton but came back to her homeland to be a professor in Freiberg :) And also – thank-you Lufthansa for actually giving us lunch and not charging for drinks – but holy turbulence on this flight! Those wings are a flapping!!! Yikes! Makes me a tad bit nervous and I’m not one to feel nervous on flights! 150 km/hr jet stream currents according to the pilot. With 10-15 minutes more of this still to come – oh my!
Despite my health woes I still tried my darndest to make the most of my last few weeks in Sweden! After our arrival back from Tallinn, Vickie stayed for another week+ (and happily she started to feel better – well really just in time to go home and back to work?!). I had a wee bit of an adjustment in remembering what it’s like sharing my space, but Vickie was a good sport (however will I cope being back in Edmonton living with the two bachelor brothers – perhaps Molly and I will escape to Tylers ;)! Vickie and I had some great adventures exploring Umea together – and we rang in the New Year with a lovely dinner with Laura and walked downtown and enjoyed the midnight fireworks! We also had some other dinner parties and I loved when Vickie got creative and used her bottle of Irish Whiskey to mash our blue potatoes – brilliant! We managed to get out once cross-country skiing together so that was good, and also enjoyed a movie at the cinema Easy A – cute movie – recommended for grown-up mom’s and their girls – very civilized this lack of dubbed movies at the theater here and instead the use of subtitles – very friendly to us English native speakers! We’ll have to go skating next time! We are already planning our next adventure – which is likely to be a UBC reunion in Ireland in 2012 – as I am hoping to go to a big biodiversity conference there! Great ‘Craic’ as Vickie would say!
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| Enjoying New Years Eve Dinner and Champagne |
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| Laura and I enjoying the New Years fireworks with Vickie |
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| Sick ?Sjuk Vickie had to resort to hot water bottle for muscle spasms compliments of tri-nation cold! |
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Vickie finishes up a cross-country ski loop at Gammlia
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| Now that's how you mash potatoes!!! |
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| Last princess cake in Sweden! Tack Vickie - you take good care of me! |
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My last week - when I wasn’t in bed ;) I got in all of my good-bye dinners with friends and of course – a last going away Fika at Goteberg Café. So good! I also tried spinning class one last time at IKSU – but it didn’t really agree with me – so my IKSU run shut down early and I didn’t get to enjoy a last hard core week with Kelley. I will SO miss our workout adventures together. You are such an inspiration Kelley! Tack! Etsuko and Petter took me to Nydalla cross-country ski trails so I finally got to see the lake and enjoy the trails that I have heard so much about! Tack se mycket everyone! I have said good-bye to friends new and old – and to my favourite piece of lab equipment – the dishwasher – which Kelley affectionately joked that they might have to name Annie. Ha ha! And also returned the faithful bike that I loved riding around town – will have to see about resurrecting one of my cruiser bikes for biking around Edmonton now that I’ve returned to being a bike commuter – reminded me how much I miss it!
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| Etsuko and Petter at Nyddala ski trail - Petter looks very slick in his ski suit! |
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Etsuko and I skiing at Nydalla
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| Kelley and milk-loving Stellan |
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| Stellan is super cute - and loved sitting on my lap - eating lots of bread! |
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| Brule decided to be a duck - full of clever ideas she is! |
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| Going Away Fika at Goteberg Cafe of Course! |
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| Nathalie, Aida, Natcho, Etsuko, Laura, Katie, and I outside Goteberg Cafe |
Yesterday I gave a talk on my PhD research at the first SLU departmental seminar of the year. Nothing like giving yourself a talk to prepare as you pack up your apartment and say hej da! But it was well received (the Swedes are always so gracious and friendly!) and I didn’t even cough much!
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| Anna, Maja, and I - my last day at SLU after my seminar |
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| Saying goodbye to Kelley in the lab - already missing her!!! |
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| Oh yes - the dishwasher - aka Annie?! |
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| My trusty borrowed bike amid the snow |
Yesterday Etsuko came and picked up me and my bags from my apartment as I moved out and Bright – a new student from Ghana - moved in (I drove her car from the parking lot and I realized that it was the first time in 3 months that I have driven – felt strange to be behind the wheel!!!). I love Bright’s description of Umea’s sun and I have been using it a lot since he referred to the Swedish sun as LAZY! I think that is a great way to describe the sun here this time of year! It is funny to think that back in Edmonton the days are going to seem so long in comparison! I enjoyed my last night in Umea visiting with Etsuko and Petter – including making yummy pastries and a last trip to ICA to stock up on Marabou chocolate to take home (based on issues with my checked bags this morning and having to do some rearranging it turns out that I am bringing home 4 kilos of chocolate!!! Reminds me of when Rob and I were in Switzerland and I loaded up my snowboard bag with at least that much chocolate and cheese ;) Everyone loves chocolate! I love that at the Umea airport you only have to be there about 30 minutes ahead of time - so civilized to not have to be there two hours early (which is how early I should have been at the Frankfurt airport to avoid the hectic chaos of nearly missing my flight to Toronto - whoops!).
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| Etsuko was a dear and drove me and my heavy bags to the airport - I miss you Etsuko! |
What can I say in closing, except that it has been an incredible three months – filled with so many special memories and cool experiences and new and continuing friendships. And also added unexpected benefits back home too! Thank-you Skype! Gives me a new focus and something to look forward to – my arrival back home at the Edmonton airport and Tyler picking me up and seeing what adventures are in store for us! Will be so good to see Molly again too and settle back in with the family and catch up with friends and see how much the kids back home have changed in the few months I’ve been gone! Hej da and Tack se mycket – see you again Sweden – you have been so good to me and for me!
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